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The Polish Act on Renewable Energy Sources

By adopting the Act on Renewable Energy Sources, the Republic of Poland has set the first milestone of the long expected regulation incentivising the production of energy from renewable sources. First indications can be traced with regard to possible investments by German project developers and lenders.

According to the EU Climate Targets, the Republic of Poland must ensure that by 2020 at least 15 % of its energy is produced by renewable energy sources. After years of preparation, the Act on Renewable Energy Sources has been promulgated on 11 March 2015.
German project developers interested in developing renewable energy projects in Poland and German credit institutions interested in financing such projects may obtain from the Act on Renewable Energy Sources the first regulatory indications regarding the legal framework of the production of renewable energy in Poland. Further legislative elements are envisaged to gradually follow during the next months.
The legislation yet to be implemented relates to various aspects which are key to project developers and their lenders; in particular, fixed feed-in tariffs are currently only provided for minor projects, while the legislation on the auction proceedings for projects of higher volume (in particular the fixed feed-in tariffs for such projects, planned to apply for 15 years, no later than 2035) yet has to be defined. However, such regulation is expected to be adopted within a short timeframe, as auction proceedings are envisaged to be applicable from January 2016. Therefore, for Germany-based project developers and German lenders considering financing such projects it might be helpful to start acquainting themselves with the new regulation.
For details of the new legislation please refer to the newsletter of our partners ofSołtysiński Kawecki & Szlęzak, New incentive scheme addressed to the renewable energy sources provided in the Act on Renewable Energy Sources dated 20 February 2015 (“RES Act”), accessible here
Further, for questions relating to the Germany-based development of projects in Poland under the Act on Renewable Energy Sources or the Germany-based financing of such projects please refer to Stenger LLP Rechtsanwälte.